I'm thinking of joining Drawing Day this year. It'll be a great way to add another smudge in my long-abandoned sketchpad, and finally break my silence in deviantArt, too.

Hm? What's that? What's Drawing Day, you ask? Here's what the Drawing Day website says...Here's what the Drawing Day website says:


Drawing Day is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything and draw for the sake of art. The internet is an open canvas. Help create 1 million drawings online this day and boost online art communities.


When is Drawing Day?
Drawing Day this year is June 07, 2008. Unless otherwise noted, Drawing Day will be the first Saturday of June each year.


What is Drawing Day?
One day a year, the world stops to remember that joy we had when we first picked up a pencil and created our first piece of art - that's what Drawing Day is all about. The goal for Drawing Day is simple - to create enough drawings to make some noise worldwide for the sake of art. 2008 is the first year of this initiative. The goal this year is to aim for 1 million drawings worldwide.


Why is Drawing Day important?
Illustrators and artists alike often go unappreciated. The creation of art and illustration captured our minds ever since we were children and our parents turned the pages of our first book. These stories came to life via the illustrations that took us to an imaginary world full of inspiration.

Whether you're a professional illustrator or you just enjoy the occasional scribble, you can give back to the illustration community by drawing on this day. By injecting more and more illustration and art into our community, we are not only showing our appreciation to our fellow artists, but we are spreading awareness of the joy of drawing. It is important that you contribute - Drawing Day will only be a success if we all participate and make some noise. So, please tell your friends and spread the word.


How do I participate?
To join in on this event is simple - as simple as picking up a pencil and drawing. However, the most important part is sharing your art with the world.

In today's age of technology, the ability to share your art with the world is easier than ever. These are some of the of the best ways to reach a broad audience.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Glamorous Soul

Your Score: Glamorous Soul

41% Flamboyance, 55% Originality, 64% Deliberateness, 54% Sexiness

[Tasteful Original Deliberate Sexy]

You choose your outfits carefully according to many criteria. You don't like looking cheap, dull or random and you go to great lengths to avoid this. You are successful, too. People admire your taste and sex appeal. Many try to imitate you but not many can recreate your unique style. Sometimes, however, they find you too intimidating to approach. If you don't wear retro style yet, perhaps you should consider it. It would become greatly your sexy, mysterious self.

The opposite style from yours is Fashion Enemy [Flamboyant Conventional Random Prissy].

All the categories: Librarian Sporty Hottie Office Master Uptown Girl/ Boy Brainy Student Movie Star Fashionista Glamorous Soul Fashion Enemy Bar Cruiser Kid Next Door Sex Bomb Hippie Kid Fashion Rebel Fashion Artist Catwalk God(ess)

The Fashion Style Test written by mari-e on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Got this from Shiela.

Glamorous, eh? Haha!

Many try to imitate you but not many can recreate your unique style.

Like, whoa. I have a unique style? I mean—of course I have a unique style—I always thought my style was classic but occassionally sporty (and of course elegant if a formal occasion requires it)... I didn't think people would try to imitate it.

And I really thought I was going to get rated as the Kid Next Door or Sporty Hottie for this quiz. Guess not. Hm.

The art on this quiz is interesting. I like how sketchy they all look. ^___^ You can check out Shiela's result art if you like.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Optimus Prime

That thing to stare at right there is cropped from a masterpiece digitally painted by adonihs. @_@ Click the link, I tells ya. Click it!!!

Yes, I love movies, and yes, I grew up watching Transformers, and yes, I've mentioned the movie a couple of times already in my blog (bumblejeep being one of the posts).

But no, I have not watched the movie yet. Muhuhuhu. Sad.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

art out on the streets

Beth told me about this fairly new website called Random Vandal.

Random Vandal was originally created to "satisfy a growing interest in street art".

Personally, though, I don't think it only satisfies the interest. I think it sparks the interest, if anything. Street art, although illegal half the time, is still art. (Of course, I must say that some vandalisms are not quite what I would call art, but that's another discussion altogether.) And, like most art forms, they are usually taken for granted until someone points it out.

Well, here I am to point it out to you, my friends, as my own friend made me notice it.



I initially thought that the website is for witty, comedic, or interesting street art, or maybe all that at once. Although it is for all that, as well, what strikes me most is the thought behind the pieces. They're not all just wit and laughs. Some of them are trying to make a point. Some of them make me think. Some of them have a message of world peace, or some other similar thing. The pieces convey different things, and they come across as different things to different people.

Hm. Isn't that precisely what art is?

So head on over to Random Vandal and browse through their gallery, and even subscribe to their feed. I thoroughly recommend it!

For contributions or questions, email their team: mail.randomvandal@gmail.com

Thursday, April 05, 2007

looking for Tabuena

During my Blogger booboo, I saw this comment by someone I didn't know. He commented on my post about an art exhibit. So I clicked on the link to see who it was. When the blog loaded, I saw brilliance. Brilliance like this:



Those are four of his amazing work, copied, squashed together and cropped to fit this blog. Go to his blog to see more awesomeness.

Anyway, I tried to scour his blog for information on who he is... I figured out that his family name is Tabuena, as that is part of the name of the blog, as well as the URL. But I didn't know who he was. I Google-ed "Tabuena" and found http://www.tabuenaart.com. The URL is exactly how the Tabuena blogger's URL starts... But as I read on, TabuenaArt.com is about Romeo Tabuena, one of the acclaimed Filipino artists of this age. His art is awesome (err... they should be, for him to be so recognized), but it's not exactly the same art as the Blogger Tabuena's is.

And so I went back to my original SERP and looked for writings about other Tabuenas... I found Tata Botata's blog, which, apparently, is a pretty popular blog in the art circle. And, I found in that blog that the Tabuena blog I was looking at is owned by one named Eric Tabuena. I'm not sure yet if he's at all connected to Romeo Tabuena... I mean, they do share the same family name, and their art is somewhat similar... They both use cubism, I think. Sorry, I don't know much about art, so my terms may be out of whack. Maybe he's a relative or son, I don't know.

I'll look into this more after I get home from vacation, and I'll update this blog entry. But for now, my friends, stroll on over to Eric's blog. Go visit Romeo Tabuna's site, too. His work is classically cool... Although, on a side note, his website needs revamping. I was already imagining a new layout for him as I browsed the pages. Heeheehee.

Happy art viewing!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Starstruck

Tonight we went to CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) for the AGOS (Artists' Guild of Sta. Maria) exhibit. My mom's friend from high school was one of the artists, and Kuya Ace had been asked to sing. So we went. Even though Kuya Ace felt sick, he sounded good when he performed. Hehe. I'm so proud of my brother.

The exhibit was cool. All the pieces were great, and there were about three that really really really awed me. Two of those were by Ed Garbes (I hope I got the name right). Hehe. Not a renowned artist yet, but I think he's gonna make it big pretty soon. Most of the artists were pretty young... I mean I think they were at most 5 years older than me (except for my mom's friend and a few others, of course).

Cocktails were served, and about an hour into the exhibit, Kuya JB, his girlfriend and I were standing by one of the tall, small tables (what do call those?) they had. Then, suddenly, this old guy in a barong (like most of the other guys and artists there) comes and stands beside me, puts his plate on our table, and starts eating. In my mind, I went, "Uh...Who're you?" seeing that there were other tables he could have used. But of course I said nothing out loud. Then another guy comes, and goes, "Sir, here's the list."

The old guy goes, "Ah, yes, yes... How much is the piece again?"

"15,000, sir."

Without hesitation, the old guy whips out a check and writes on it. Homhayghulay. P15,000. Fifteen thousand!

So many zeroes... @_@

After the transaction ended, the old guy continues eating. I ate my delicious barbecue in peace while Kuya JB and Ate Steph go back to the food table for seconds (there were a lot of food). That time that I stood beside this old guy in a barong, I couldn't help but wonder who he was. There was something about him that told me that he was someone important, even if you take away the fact that he was rich. It was funny because he didn't talk like a powerful man or anything... In fact, he was a bit laid back (reminds me of a surfer for some reason), and he keeps bumping his elbow on me. After a few hits, he laughingly apologized, and finally inched away a bit so he wouldn't hit me again. But even after all this, there was still that nagging feeling that he was someone I should know.

The whole thing was simply weird.

He turns to me again, saying, "May may-ari ba nito?" pertaining to the almost full glass of iced tea on the table.

"Uh...Opo," I answer. "Sa nanay ko po..."

"Ah, gano'n ba? O, sige."

"Gusto n'yo pong ikuha ko po kayo?"

"Ah, hindi na, hija. Salamat."

By this time, Kuya JB had returned, and the old guy finished eating.

"Sige," he says, "enjoy the exhibit."

"Sige po," I say, smiling, just before he turned around and walked away. Because of his comment, I wondered if he was one of the organizers or something.

My mom had returned to the table at this point.

"Ma, do you know who that artist was?" I asked as I lifted my glass to drink.

My mom smiled, and her answer nearly made me choke on my iced tea.


"Napoleon Abueva."


"..."


GAH!!!!!!


I turned towards the direction he walked off to so fast you'd think my neck would break. And there he was, casually looking at some artwork. I wanted to go on over and talk to him, but I suddenly realized that I wouldn't know what to say. I mean, sure, I appreciate art, but I'm not really an enthusiast or anything. I know practically nothing about paint and sculpture and art history... I knew NADA that can carry me through an intelligent conversation with him. I had considered just striking a not-so-intelligent conversation (no point in pretending, right?) but I didn't know how to do it, though. And every time I gather my guts and stop myself from being starstruck, someone else beats me to it and talks to him.

I just shared a table with a National Artist, and I didn't even know it.

And so the night went on and I thought I had lost my chance to talk to a man of brilliance. So I resigned to just scrutinizing and studying each artwork. I was appreciating this piece done with Pastel on felt paper when yet another guy in a barong stands beside it, and says, "Uh...miss, can you excuse us? Magpapapicture lang kami."

I realized at once that this was the artist of the piece I was looking at, so I smiled and said, "Sure," as I turned to see who he was going to have a photo taken with.

Napoleon Abueva.

Again.

He goes, "Excuse, a."

I just smiled like an idiot and managed a weak "Opo..." as I stepped back and out of the shot.

And, argh. My PR powers couldn't handle the greatness. I slinked back to our table, mentally kicking myself.

A few minutes later, Abueva was slowly making his way to the exit, and I thought that I was about to curse my occasional cowardice. But then, I got an idea. One that was so freaking simple, I couldn't believe I didn't think of it earlier. I went to my mom and whispered: "Ma, ask Tita Bing to ask Napoleon Abueva if he can have a photo taken with us." And so she did, and he did.

Wheeeee! I not only shared a table with Napoleon Abueva, but I had talked to him (no matter how unimportant the "conversation" was), and had a photo taken with him! And he shook my hand (he had a good grip, too)!

^______________^

Lessons learned for the night:
1.) Muster up your guts in the presence of greatness. Great people are still people. You can have a conversation with them even without trying to be knowledgeable in their field.
2.) Great things can come in humble packages.
3.) Art exhibits are FUN!